Apollo was the only god who retained his original name after moving from the Greek system to the Roman religious system. Many later generations only knew him as the sun god in ancient Greek mythology. But in fact, this god was only a god in charge of art in Greek mythology. It was not until around the fifth century BC that he was given the functions of the sun god and the god of light. After the Romans included this god in their religious system, they did not give him a new name like other Greek gods. Instead, they kept the name Apollo and gave him a variety of functions in the later mythological evolution — music, medicine, prophecy, light, sun … In the Roman mythological system, Apollo had a lot of clerical powers, which fully reflected the imagination of the vast number of working people in this period, and …
The collapse of the kingdom of the gods.
The reason was simple. When the thunder giants on Mount Olympus (the family of Zeus) were still prosperous, they directly ruled the creatures on the earth. Their existence was real and unquestionable. The mortals on the earth naturally knew who the gods they served and what kind of power they had. But as the army of the demon hunters broke through the protective wall of Olympus, Zeus and his descendants were involved in the war and had no time to pay attention to the things on the earth. For hundreds of years, the contact with the kingdom of the gods was intermittent. The priests on the earth had to find ways to maintain the status and influence of the gods they worshiped. So there seemed to be no other way but to create Doujinshi for these gods.
As a result, the faces of the clear and accurate gods became blurred, wrapped in a layer of mysterious veil, and hung a lot of unknown clerical powers.
On days when there were no religious activities and celebrations, the temple was relatively quiet. At this moment, the Romans had not yet entered the period when the whole country was in a drunken stupor. People still needed to spend a lot of time on work. So, on weekdays, basically only the nobles or civilians who came to the temple to pray for help in times of disaster. But today was obviously a day when the temple had a particularly low flow of people. Hao Ren and his entourage stepped into the temple and saw an empty hall inside. The statue of the sun god Apollo and the altar stood majestically in front of them. Several monks were cleaning around the altar.
Hessiana glanced at the statue of Apollo and curled her lips. "His eyes are too big."
Hasse also looked up and said, "I killed this one."
Hao Ren: "…"
The monks in the temple had noticed the group of uninvited guests who had stepped into the sacred place and were gossiping about the statues. An old man in a white robe with purple trim came up to them. He looked at the one-eyed Hasse warily. It seemed that he had been serving the gods for a long time, and he could sense the scent of the demon hunters. "Are you here to seek guidance from the great Apollo?"
Hao Ren glanced at the old man. "Who is the officiant here?"
The old man straightened his back, full of pride and nobility like every clergyman in this era. "I am."
Hao Ren nodded. "Okay, we want to talk to Apollo. Please contact him for us."
The old man was stunned. It did not sound like something people would say when they came to the temple to ask for help or worship the gods. In fact, he had been a priest here for most of his life and he had never heard of anyone making such a request. "Don't be rude! Do you know that this is a sacred place? "
Hessiana stepped forward. "Of course I do. That's why we are here to look for Apollo. Otherwise, how can we find the external window of Olympus?"
The old priest blinked. He suddenly thought that these people were barbarians who did not understand the rules of the civilized world. So he patiently explained, "If you want to listen to the revelation of the gods, then you should first —"
Lily was impatient. She suddenly stepped forward and grabbed the old priest's collar. A pair of spirited wolf ears popped out of her head. "Old man, you don't understand human language! We are here to talk to Apollo! Look at my ears. Don't you know what we are here for? "
The old priest stared at the wolf ears that suddenly popped out of Lily's head, and then he saw a blood-red energy ball summoned by Hessiana. He finally realized what was going on. "You … You are … gods?"
At this moment, the Mythological Era was not over. Although the demon hunters had attacked Mount Olympus, otherworldlings were still common in the human world. For ordinary humans, these otherworldlings had a unified classification: gods!
For Hao Ren, who had direct contact with the true gods, this weird social and religious form was a bit ridiculous. But in this era, it was indeed common sense and even a part of human life.
Lily nodded with satisfaction. "It's good that you know. We have something to discuss with Apollo. Now that Olympus is closed, we know that a priest like you has a sacred relic that can establish contact with Olympus, so we came to look for you."
"It's a great honor," Hasse added indifferently.
The cold sweat on the old priest's forehead dripped on his shoulder. Then, as if he suddenly came to his senses, he shouted at the junior priests and monks, "Quick! Close the gate of the temple! "
The solemn and heavy gate of the temple slammed shut during the day. This would probably cause speculation and gossip among the ordinary people outside, but for Hao Ren and his team, these things were insignificant. Under the guidance of the old priest, they came to the depths of the temple. There was also a statue of Apollo and an altar here, but there was no space around the statue for ordinary believers to worship. Obviously, this was a place for the priests of the temple.
The old priest trembled and took out a delicate brass box from a secret compartment under the statue. He opened the box and took out a gold badge with a sun relief. With a complex expression of excitement and awe on his face, he handed the badge to Hao Ren.
When Hao Ren reached out to take the badge, the old priest suddenly took a deep breath and said, "You … you may not be able to contact the great Apollo."
Hao Ren raised his eyebrows and asked, "Why?"
The old priest seemed to be struggling internally. As a humble mortal slave, he did not really understand the world of the gods, and he did not know whether his actions would please the gods or anger them. But after some thought, he said, "In fact … even we have difficulty contacting the kingdom of the gods. Perhaps the depravity of mankind has angered the gods. Since a few decades ago, they have rarely issued edicts, and our prayers are only occasionally answered. Especially in the last decade, I have not heard the voice of the great Apollo. Perhaps … perhaps we have lost the favor of the gods …"
The old priest sounded a little frightened. On the one hand, he was feeling uneasy because of the lack of response from the gods. On the other hand, he was worried that he would anger these unknown gods in front of him.
The otherworldling gods had never been kind and compassionate to their people. They ruled humans only because they needed humans to constantly offer them offerings and entertain them. In this era, humans were more in awe and fear of the gods. Families of gods like the Olympians and Norse gods with some rules and regulations were still tolerable. But when faced with some wandering gods, even a hundred times more caution and humility were not enough.
The "gods" could be enraged at any time. Even if they were not enraged, they might slaughter all the humans in the city just because they were "happy". The old priest did not know whether these people were good or evil gods, so he was naturally uneasy.
After hearing the old priest's words, Hao Ren and Hasse looked at each other.
The war that took place in the Divine Kingdom would not directly affect the human world, but its influence would inevitably spread to the human world.
The first to be affected were the people living in the temples. Due to the crumbling of the divine realm, most of the temples in the mortal world had probably lost contact with the various divine realms.
But Hao Ren did not care. As long as Mount Olympus was still there, he would naturally have a way to contact them.
Under the old priest's uneasy gaze, Hao Ren took the badge and then probed it with his mental power.
The gold badge was just a facade. There was a delicate magic structure inside this small metal device. Its function was to read the mental signal of the holder. After a simple decoding and forwarding, it was connected to the communication hub of Olympus in the other dimension.
It was just a magic version of a walkie-talkie.
In order to allow humans with weak mental strength and lack of magic skills to use it, the communication device had deliberately simplified its functions and reduced the difficulty of using it. Even so, only a few trained and talented humans could activate its power, but at least the priests in the temple could use it.
Even ordinary people could master it after training, so it was even easier for Hao Ren to crack the decoding rules of this thing.
Almost effortlessly, Hao Ren erased the anti-theft chain module of the gold badge and then activated its function. The surface of the badge began to glow with a faint golden glow.
The old priest looked at the scene in awe. He had used all his strength to make the badge respond a little, but that little response was completely different from the glorious scene before him. He realized the power of the gods in front of him, so he bowed his head even more humbly.
"Your power is amazing."
Obviously, when the Olympian gods were entangled with the demon hunters and had no time to care about the mortal world, the priests under them were not very devout. Their rule, which relied on violence and intimidation to maintain, was naturally not sustainable.
"You go out first." Hao Ren thought of something and asked the old priest to leave. "What we want to talk about is the secret of the gods."
The old priest was a little hesitant about this request. "But —"
"Don't worry, Apollo will not blame you," Hessiana glanced at the old priest. "But if you don't go out, we will blame you now."
The old priest immediately shivered and hurried out of the place.
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